Fletching is a skill somewhat similar to Crafting; however, it involves creating bows and arrows, and it is a great money making skill.
Definitions aside, fletching is the ability to make ranging equipment. It is a members-only skill, although some ranged equipment made is allowed to be used on an F2P - or free playing - server.

1.2 - Why should you fletch?

Fletching is one of the best ways to make money in RuneScape. Casting High Level Alchemy on yew longbows, magic shortbows, and magic longbows are an increasingly popular way to make quick cash. It is also a relatively easy skill, requiring few items to make bows as well as taking less time (as opposed to casting High Alchemy on steel plates, which requires 5 iron, 10 coal just to make one plate). This guide will explain more information of the monetary benefits of fletching in section 4.8.

A drawback to fletching is that many find it boring. Some love fletching and find it relaxing, but everyone has a different opinion. It is also a members-only skill, so if you cancel your membership, you will no longer have your primary means of making cash. In addition, you need a fairly high fletching level to make significant profits (level 70 and up); more information about this later.

Overall, if you do not like making arrows or bows, do not take up this skill. The point of RuneScape is to have fun, and you should find the skill you like to do best and concentrate on that instead, even if it does not make as much money and has more drawbacks. Most skills can produce an income. Only those who truly enjoy fletching, or at least can tolerate it, should continue with this guide.

2.0 - How to Fletch

2.1 - Bows

To make a bow, simply use a knife with a log and create a "shortbow" or "longbow." Then take a flax plant from a flax field and spin it on a spinning wheel to make a bowstring. Use this with your unstrung bow and you are done! The table below shows experience gained from making a complete bow. Half of the experience is gained for carving the bow, and the other half is gained by stringing it.

Players can learn to create composite (comp) bows during Zogre Flesh Eaters quest. Creating a composite bow requires an achey tree log to be cut instead, and for wolf bones to be present in an inventory at the time. Like conventional bows the unstrung weapon then just needs a bowstring attached. Composite bows gained from Treasure Trails cannot be made using Fletching.

Picture

Name

Level

XP (Cut and Strung)

Shortbow

5

10

Longbow

10

20

Oak shortbow

20

33

Oak longbow

25

50

Composite ogre bow

30

90

Willow shortbow

35

66

Willow longbow

40

83

Maple shortbow

50

100

Maple longbow

55

116.66

Yew shortbow

65

135

Yew longbow

70

150

Magic shortbow

80

166.5

Magic longbow

85

183

2.2 - Arrows

Regular Arrows
The base of any arrow is the shaft. To make a shaft, chop down any regular tree. Use your handy-dandy knife to make arrow shafts (the same way you would an unstrung bow). One log will make 15 arrow shafts every time no questions asked. Next, you need feathers to place at the end of your arrows. You can obtain these from chickens, the fishing shop, other players, and the Grand Exchange. After this, you need to smith arrowheads or purchase them from specialty shops, other players, or in the Grand Exchange. If you want to make iron arrows, use iron bars. One iron bar will make 15 arrowheads. Now, to attach them all together you must use your feathers on the shafts, then use your arrowheads on the headless arrows. An update has now made it easier to fletch arrows with the "Make X" option. This way you won't have to hurt your hand by riddling your mouse with clicks!

Ogre Arrows
With the Big Chompy Bird Hunting quest, you can make ogre arrows. These arrows require different materials than regular arrows and only the ogre bow can be used to fire the arrows. Here is how to make them; For the arrow shaft, go to the area that the Big Chompy Bird hunting quest takes place in near the Feldip Hills. You will see pointy Achey trees. Cut these down and use a knife with them to make ogre arrow shafts. Use feathers with the shafts to make flighted ogre arrows. Kill some wolves (the best place is White Wolf Mountain but there are also wolves just east of the Achey trees) and use a chisel with the wolf bones to make ogre arrowheads and attach them to the arrows.

Broad Arrows
After completion of the Smoking Kills quest, you can make Broad Arrows which require level 55 slayer and 50 ranged to use. Broad arrows are used as one of the five options to kill Kurasks and Turoths. They can also be bought for 35 slayer points or made once the player has purchased the knowledge to do so for 300 Slayer points to learn how to create broad arrows for yourself. To make broad arrows you must buy the arrow heads from slayer masters for 50 coins each. Simply use them on regular arrow shafts to create unfinished broad arrows, then, fletch them with feathers using only one feather per arrow.

Brutal Arrows
Progressing from Broad arrows, Brutal arrows can be made during and after the Zogre Flesh Eaters quest. Again these use Achey wood arrow shafts. However, nails made with Smithing are attached rather than common arrowheads.

NOTE: When making ogre shafts and arrow tips, you receive an uneven amount of shafts/tips every time. For example, one achey log may give 3 shafts, while another gives 6. It is the same thing with the arrowheads. In addition, 4 feathers are required for every ogre arrow shaft. The experience gained from the arrows varies as well.

Picture

Name

Level

XP

15 Arrow shafts

1

5

Headless arrow

1

1

Bronze arrow

1

1.3

Ogre arrow

5

Varies

Bronze brutal arrow

7

1.4

Iron arrow

15

2.5

Iron brutal arrow

18

2.6

Steel arrow

30

5

Steel brutal arrow

33

5.1

Black brutal arrow

38

6.4

Mithril arrow

45

7.5

Mithril brutal arrow

49

7.5

Broad arrow

52

15

Adamant arrow

60

10

Adamant brutal arrow

62

10.1

Rune arrow

75

12.5

Rune brutal arrow

77

12.5

Dragon arrow

90

15

2.3 - Crossbows

The ability to carefully craft crossbows is an ancient dwarven art. To make a crossbow, use a knife on any type of log, and choose to make a crossbow stock (cannot be done with magic logs) - this method also uses the "Make-X" option. Using the Smithing skill, you are able to make "limbs" for the crossbow using one metal bar at an anvil. As each metal has a different flexibility and weight, the type of limb needed for the crossbow is determined by the type of wood you used to make the stock. Other combinations will not work. Once you have both, merge the stock and the limbs together to make an unstrung crossbow. Once you've done so, you are able to string it using a crossbow string (cooked beef made into sinew, then spun at a spinning wheel - level 3 Cooking
and 10 Crafting required).

Adding tips to the ends of bolts never used to be very common practice amongst Runescapians. However, since several new bolt types have been added to the game, quite a number of people have been utilising them. With the exception of the barbed bolttips and the mithril grapple, you are able to simply use a chisel to cut other gems, and choose an option to make bolttips, gaining a small amount of fletching XP (included in the total XP column). You are able to add these tips to metal bolts you have made using the Smithing skill. Once this has been done, you are even able to enchant them to have special abilities when versing players or monsters. After completion of the Smoking Kills quest, you can spend 300 Slayer points to learn how to create Broad-tipped bolts.

Picture

Name

Level

Tips Made

Picture

Bolt Type

XP (per gem cut)

XP (per tip added)

Total XP per

Final

Name

Opal bolttips

11

12

Bronze bolt

1

1.6

20.2

Opal bolts

Jade bolttips

26

12

Blurite bolt

2

2.4

30.8

Jade bolts

Pearl bolttips

41

6 (small oyster)24 (large oyster)

Iron bolt

3

3.2

22.279.8

Pearl bolts

Red topaz bolttips

48

12

Steel bolt

3

3.9

49.8

Red topaz bolts

Barbed bolttips

51

-

Bronze bolt

-

9.5

9.5

Barbed bolts

Saphire bolttips

56

12

Mithril bolt

4

4.7

60.4

Sapphire bolts

Emerald bolttips

58

12

Mithril bolt

5

5.5

71

Emerald bolts

Mithril grapple tip

59

-

Mithril bolt

-

11

11

Mithril grapple

Ruby bolttips

63

12

Adamant bolt

6

6.3

81.6

Ruby bolts

Diamond bolttips

65

12

Adamant bolt

7

7

91

Diamond bolts

Dragonstone bolttips

71

12

Rune bolt

8

8.2

106.4

Dragonstone bolts

Onyx bolttips

73

24

Rune bolt

9

9.4

234.6

Onyx bolts

Broad bolttips

55

10

Broad bolt

N/A

3

30

Broad-tipped bolts

2.5 - Darts

Making darts is quite simple, but it is rarely used. Simply make dart tips by using a metal bar on an anvil and add feathers to them using the double-click method. Each bar will make 10 dart tips, which will then become 10 Darts.

Picture

Name

Level

XP

Bronze dart

1

1.8

Iron dart

22

3.2

Steel dart

37

7.5

Mithril dart

52

11.2

Adamant dart

67

15

Rune dart

81

18.8

Dragon dart

95

25

3.0 - Training Methods & Locations

This is simply what you should fletch at each level. You also need to bring up your Woodcutting skill along with fletching, unless you plan to buy all your logs. This is very pricey and disfavored, as those who have the money to buy their way to 85 fletching do not NEED the extra cash obtained by it. Just woodcut everything you fletch and you will be fine.

3.1 - What should you fletch at this level?

Levels 1-30

For the beginning levels, either arrows or bows will get you far. Bows are good, as they are faster and require less item gathering. Always make the best possible bow you can make, unless your Woodcutting level is not high enough to chop efficiently. Start with shortbows and work your way up to level 30.

Levels 30-50

For this level range you can still make bows, however in order to speed up the leveling process it is a good idea to make a few thousand steel arrows. Remember, you do not "fail" when making bows and arrows, so level 30 is as good as 50 when it comes to quality. Again, you should always fletch the highest level bow/arrow you can, unless your woodcutting level restricts you.

Levels 51-70

The fastest way to get from level 51 to 70 is making willow longbows. Willow logs are 8-11gp each, so it won't cost you much. Also, you get some money back by selling the bows to shops.

Levels 70+

Here is where the real magic begins. Fletch yew longbows for the best money until your fletching is level 85, and after that you can make magic longbows if you have the money to buy magic logs or if you have the time to woodcut a lot of them. During this time your woodcut should be higher than 75. If you cut all the yews that you fletch it will be 85+. If you have a lot of time, you could try woodcutting (Note that 85+ Woodcutting and a good spot are recommended to efficiently chop magic logs). However, if you're powertraining, than buying is the way to go.

3.2 - What is a good strategy for leveling?

Fletching Bows

The basic strategy for fletching is to get through the bows as quickly as possible. You will fletch a ton of bows in your RuneScape lifetime, and probably get very bored. Our strategy is to minimize the time spent and maximize the fun. Keeping the knife as close to the chat box as possible is a good idea, as well as making it so you do not have to move the mouse too much while stringing bows.

The actual strategy: check a fletching calculator to find out how many bows you need to make. Let us pretend to get to the next level you need to make 300 yew longbows. First, get your axe if you wish to woodcut these yew logs (if you wish to speed things up and have money to spare you could simply buy 300 yew logs.) Cut 300 yew logs and cut them into unstrung bows after each load. Once you have banked 300 unstrung yew longbows, obtain 300 bowstrings as well. In order to do this, go south of Seers' Village and pick flax. On your way back, stop by the south-western most house and go upstairs. Spin the flax on a spinning wheel. Continue this until you have 300 strings. If you have money to spare, buy the bowstrings from somebody for 150-200gp each, or flax from someone for 80-90gp each. This means 300 bowstrings will cost 45,000-60,000gp, and 300 flax will cost 24,000-27,000gp.

In the past, you used to click continuously to fletch bows. Now, instead of fletching every single bow, one at a time, you can fletch an entire inventory at once. To do this, use a knife with a log. A menu will pop up asking whether you want to make short bows or longs. Right click on your option and select "Make X." Type in the number of bows you would like to make, or alternatively just type in "99" for a whole load, as it is faster.

Recently, an update has meant that players can select "Make All" when attaching bowstrings to unstrung bows. This is generally considered to be faster and easier, although some older fletchers argue that they can click between the items faster.

A lot of people will trade you yew logs and bowstrings for your strung yew bows once you're level 70+, and they will occassionally offer money as well. This will allow you to level fletching faster, however you won't make as much money.

Fletching Arrows

Fletching arrows, while easy, is not recommended for leveling since the materials are so hard to obtain quickly and inexpensively. In addition, in later levels it takes MASSIVE amounts of arrows to make any sort of progress. Gather the materials in bulk, once you have everything you need, go to a bank and withdraw all your shafts and your feathers. Simply use the feathers with the arrows to start fletching them.

The Magic

If you wish to cast high alchemy on your bows, withdraw all bows from the bank in note form. Place them on the same spot as the high alchemy icon (it changes with the addition as new magic spells, but as of now, it is the 6th row, first column). It should be right on top of the "high alchemy" icon on your magic screen. Make sure you have a nature rune for every bow you wish to high alchemy, and a fire staff equipped (or 5 fire runes per bow). Click on the high alchemy icon, and then click on the note. You should not have to move the mouse to do this. High alchemize all your notes then enjoy your cash.

Here is a table to show you the amount of GP you will receive each time you cast high alchemy on a bow.

Bow Type

Shortbows (Unstrung)

Longbows (Unstrung)

Shortbows

Longbows

Regular

15gp

24gp

30gp

48gp

Oak

30gp

48gp

60gp

96gp

Willow

60gp

96gp

120gp

192gp

Maple

120gp

192gp

240gp

384gp

Yew

240gp

384gp

480gp

768gp

Magic

480gp

768gp

960gp

1536gp

As you can see from this table, it may not be worth it to string maple bows and lower when you are fletching. This is because bowstrings can get expensive and you do not get much in return when you high alchemy these cheaper bows (not to mention the amount of money one must spend on nature runes). If you want to get a good return in cash, only string and high alchemy the yew and magic bows.

Sacred clay fletching knife

The sacred clay fletching knife awards double the normal experience gained for every log you fletch into a bow or arrow. It is created by transforming a morphic or volatile tool and requires 40 Fletching to use. These can be bought from the Stealing Creation mini-game for 20 reward points each.

You may purchase most of the items needed to fletch. Nature runes are roughly 260 each, yew logs 450-500gp each, and bowstrings 175-200gp each. However, if you buy ALL of these things you will LOSE money. Therefore, if you are planning to buy at all, choose between the natures, bowstrings and the yew logs. Buying the bowstrings is a wise choice, but you should do whatever makes you comfortable.

The Money Making Process

Cast high alchemy on yew longs, magic shorts, and magic longs. Fletch as many bows as needed for the next level, and then cast high alchemy on them. You will obtain 400k+ per set of bows you fletch. Level 70 to 85 will give you about 12 million, if you work at it. Most people do not suggest using High Alchemy on magic shorts as the money is not enough to make up for the time lost trying to cut magic trees. Therefore, you should only start High Alching magic longs when you get to level 85. This is GREAT magic experience, Runecrafting experience, Woodcutting experience, Crafting experience, and fletching experience. It is also great for getting up that skill total!

I. Does this work?

Of course it does! Fletching is becoming one of the most popular moneymaking skills for members. Yew trees, which used to have only one or two people at them, now the trees often have over 5 woodcutters. Everyone wants a piece of fletching (even F2P, if you have not noticed), and after High Alching a large load of bows you can see why!

II. How long should this take?

Getting to 70 fletching can take up to a month if you work at it. It will take much longer if you do not fletch efficiently. If you are serious about getting the levels, it is obtainable in, approximately, 6-10 hours of gameplay. If you buy all the logs needed, you can get it even faster! After you get 70 fletching, it takes as long as you need to get the money you want!

III. What are the benefits of using fletching for income?

The best thing about using fletching as your main source of income is it is not market-based. Remember when rune essence sold for 100-200gp each? Now it only sells for 25gp. Why? As more people jumped on the rune essence bandwagon, the prices dropped. With fletching, this is impossible, because you are not selling to other players. You are casting a magic spell that gives the same amount of money no matter how many people do it, and no matter how messed up the RuneScape economy is. While rune and treasure trail prices continue to drop, you will keep a steady income. Moreover, you do not have to haggle for prices. It is 768gp a yew longbow.

Please note some of the prices on here might not be 100% accurate, prices are unstable. Please check our Market Price Guide for more up-to-date and accurate prices

5.0 - Frequently Asked Questions

Where are the best places for getting the logs needed for fletching?

Log

Where...

Regular

Anywhere with lots of regular trees near a bank. A good place would be Draynor Village, Seers' Village, and east Varrock. However, if you're making arrow shafts you don't need to be near a bank, as the shafts are stackable. Anywhere where there are a lot of trees is fine.

Four places are good for willows. Seers' Village has 6 willow trees behind the bank. Catherby also has willows just west of the bank. Draynor Village also has 5 trees. The Barbarian Outpost is also a good spot to obtain willows, with multiple trees just a few steps away from a bank deposit box

Maple

Behind Seers' Village bank are 4 maple trees, a very good place to make maple bows and cut wood (as an off-note, further north of the four maple trees is an entire forest of maple trees. These are not as close to the bank, but it is a good place for maple).

Yew

The best place to cut yew is west of Catherby, directly below the flax farm. There are 6 yew trees there. Keep "run" on - it will recharge while you cut. Use the bank in Catherby. The church in Seers' Village also has yew trees, but it is often crowded and there are only 3 trees.

Magic

South of Seers' Village and west of the yew trees are 3 magic trees. In addition, just a bit south of those trees, the entrance to the Scorpion Catcher Wizard's tower has 4 magic trees as well. Either the Legends' Guild
bank or Seers' Village bank is good banks for magic trees. There is also three magic trees just south of Lletya, and some out the front of the Mage Training Arena in Al-Kharid.

What is the fastest way to make bowstrings?

The main spot used to make bowstrings is Seers' Village. There is a flax farm south of the courthouse and west of the courthouse is a house (it is the closest one to the church). Upstairs in that house is a spinning wheel.

An alternative location, if you're just doing spinning, is Lumbridge Castle. It takes around 3 clicks to get from the bank on the very top floor to the spinning wheel on the second floor, making it one of the fastest ways to spin flax.

Tree Gnome Stronghold provides a flax field as well. Look for the field in south-east. After you have an inventory full of flax, go upstairs of one of the trees, where you can find a spinning wheel. There is a bank near the tree patch.

Seers' Village - Roughly 100 seconds (from bank to spinning wheel, spinning and back to bank)

Another good way to get bowstrings while paying less money is simply to buy the flax! Flax costs about 100gp each because it is irritating to pick. Buy some, and spin it yourself in Lumbridge Castle! It is almost solely responsible for getting many players low-level crafting up.

If you have started Mourning's Ends Part I, then another good spot for collecting flax is Lletya, which is located in the elf land. The flax is just a few squares off the bank and it's relatively faster method.

If you have completed the The Fremennik Isles quest and have a lot of flax banked, you have access to the best spinning wheel located in Neitiznot. There are no ladders to climb and the wheel is just 1 screen east of the bank.

What do I do with all these bows?

On your way to glorious 70 fletching, you may notice that you have several thousand bows in your bank. In RS1, this was a problem, as you had to withdraw and drop them one load at a time. In RS2, there are many simple ways to get rid of this huge bow backlog, saving the bankers thousands of coins in storage costs.

Method 1: Sell to a general store/ranging shop! This is the preferred method for most, as you get some money.

Method 2: Stick them in the party chest! The Party Hall is conveniently located at Falador. Withdraw all of your bows (in NOTE form, please, or Party Pete will get angry) and stick them in the party chest. You would not be making any money, but you will be rid of the bows quickly and make a drop party slightly more entertaining. If you are the type of person that likes to give rather than receive, this is the option for you.

Method 3: Put them on the Grand Exchange! With this update at the end of last year, you can potentially sell all your bows while doing something completely different. However, the bows will almost certainly take a very long time to sell, and they will most likely go one-by-one. Even still, after a while they'll all have disappeared, leaving you with a few extra gp.

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